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Jay Leno also has a black GT but his has red stripes. Just as with Barry's '05 GT, this one is all black with the stripe delete. Lastly, no, I see no need for a lifesized image of me in my office!!!! I do agree, however, that it's a very nice picture!!

Re: Very Cool Project ALERT!

Many of you are probably wondering what the back story is with this whole project. Well, here's the deal:

We had a really cool opportunity to assist Larry Kosilla with a video he's producing featuring Barry Meguiar's new 2017 Ford GT. As things evolved and content ideas grew, it became apparent that a single video would be insufficient to tell the whole story, so it now appears that this will end up as a series of perhaps 4 separate videos. We don't want to spoil the plot entirely so you'll have to wait for Larry's videos to come out to get the entire picture. But we do want to share some of the process and scenario with you.

Having the opportunity to work on a really cool car is always special. When that cool car is the new 2017 Ford GT and it's owned by none other than Barry Meguiar himself, and we get to work on it in Barry's home garage, well, the specialness just skyrockets.

Obviously we needed to wash the car before we could do any real work on it, so wash we did. Barry's house provided some much needed shade on the street so that we could wash out of direct sunlight. Still, the scenery was rather picturesque as we removed the loose contaminants from the car.

This being a video shoot, we had to set up the scene before we could start washing the car.

When you have to get the shot, you do what you gotta do. In this case, Ryan just takes a seat on the wet street to get the lowdown (see what I did there?) on the cleaning process.

Onlookers begin to gather in the background. Really? Is it that interesting to watch a couple of guys wash a car? Well, yeah, when that car is the new Ford GT!!

Once the car was clean and dried we brought it back into the garage for evaluation and all the hard work needed to bring out a proper Meguiar's shine. Below, Kev

Derek Bemiss of Detail Werks does some process testing of his own while Kevin and I check progress as we go.

Process defined, it's time to get polishing on this beast! Our test spots indicated that M205 on microfiber cutting discs would give us the correction we needed, while creating minimal hazing. Haze reduced as the discs "seasoned in" so we were good with it. That minimal hazing was also easily removed with M205 on black foam finishing discs. But liquid/disc choice doesn't tell the full story here, nor does it with any other project, truth be told. Technique is critical when it comes to paint polishing, especially on touch sensitive paint. This paint liked a lot of pad spin, so we kept speeds on the MT300 to roughly 4500 OPM and pressure was only moderate at the most. This allowed the disc to spin fairly quickly, giving the disc and liquid the ability to do what they do so well - gently abrade the paint to remove the defects without being overly aggressive and causing too much "destructive paint repair". That's an interesting term, and it refers to the type of secondary defect that a machine polishing process can create. A rotary, when used improperly, can and will create extreme holograms or rotary swirls, but adjustments to technique can dramatically minimize that swirl mark formation. Similarly, overly aggressive use of a DA can create excessive hazing but an adjustment in technique can mitigate that. Finishing, again, wasn't quite as simple as M205 on black foam. It involved a very minimal amount of M205 on very clean discs - like a few very small smears of M205, not even full sized drops. And then we used a very short buffing cycle and light pressure for finishing. No need to buff for long periods of time, or use heavy pressure, etc. A much more sympathetic approach will often yield far better results with less "clean up" to do later on.

Proper lighting is critical to any detailing project. We made use of several Scan Grip fixtures, both tripod mounted and hand held, for this project. Since the Ford GT sits so low to the ground, we wrapped the tripod legs in Supreme Shine microfiber towels to eliminate the possibility of contact damage with these low slung carbon fiber parts.

The Buff Daddy himself, hard at work.

This being a video shoot, there was lots of time needed for on camera discussions of what was going on. It's one thing to show what we were doing, but it's key that we explain why we're doing what we're doing. Here, Larry and Kevin go over key points to discuss in the next segment they're about to shoot.

Once that segment was shot, it was all hands on deck and back to polishing the paint.

A lift is always nice to have when working down low on any car, but lacking a lift it was sure nice that the garage floor was spotless. We expected nothing less from this particular garage!

For me personally, one of the coolest aspects of detailing a car is getting to know the nuances of design - every curve, every panel line, how the shapes merge and flow into each other. I kind of geek out on the design of a car, and with the Ford GT there are features totally unique - like the flying buttresses, and the extreme taper of the cockpit. But every single winglet, scoop, fairing, etc on this car is there for a reason. The more you see this car, the more you have hands on it and really get to know it, the more you appreciate it!

A killer view under that flying buttress, with the tapered cockpit/engine bay on the right, the rear wheel housing on the left, and the active aero rear wing bridging the two.

Sometimes when shooting a video you discover that you need to reshoot a scene. Rarely do you shoot something like this fully in sequence, so having to go back and reshoot something sometimes means having to recreate a situation. In this case, we needed some additional footage of dust and other contaminants on the paint, but the car was darn near spotless. So, a little compressed air and a few dried out discs left over from the day before and voila - dust!! Yes, I'm literally blowing out dirty microfiber discs directly onto the paint. Sounds a bit crazy, but we got the shot and everything was fine. I did feel a bit weird doing it though!

When all the polishing was done we needed to get some driving shots of the car, so we headed out onto Pacific Coast Highway between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. For an extra dose of fun, and to fit in with the concept Larry has for the videos, we had to press Barry's '05 Ford GT into service at the same time. Toward the end of the shoot the fog from the marine layer was starting to roll in as the sun was setting, so we headed back to the garage where Barry keeps his modest collection. That meant we got to capture both cars in the fog, along with the Mustang GT used as chase/camera vehicle.

The final shot of the multi day project: Barry Meguiar in his new (and freshly detailed) 2017 Ford GT alongside Derek Bemiss in Barry's 2005 Ford GT, stopped at a light. When the light went green Barry launched hard, Derek side stepped the clutch and the two cars took off......... no, no, no.... there was no street racing taking place, don't be silly. Still, that would have been an epic sight, you have to admit!!!

A huge "Thank You!!" is owed to Larry Kosilla for his vision for these upcoming videos; Ryan Douthit for capturing all the video and sound; Kevin Brown and Derek Bemiss for their incredible amount of knowledge, expertise, and stamina during the whole process; and of course Barry and Karen Meguiar for opening their home to us for a couple of days while we made a bunch of noise and mayhem to put everything together. If ever there was an experience to remember, this was surely it!!